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Abandoned steamboats and barges, tall red-gum wharves, small towns that show evidence of
once having been much larger, old station homesteads that face the Murray.
To the river traveler all these are constant reminders
of the days when hundreds of steamers raced along the Murray, opening up large areas in
New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. For many settlers they were the only source
of supply and contact with the outside world.
After Sturt first discovered and named the Murray in 1830, it was over twenty years before
the first two steamboats made their way upstream.
By 1860 there were seventeen steams trading and operating on the river, and by 1863 the
new town of Echuca had a population of
300. Less than ten years later the population was 1600, and Echuca was Victoria's second largest port
with 240 boats annually trading in all types of goods, particularly wool.
The Murray River Charts features charts and amps from Renmark to Yarrawonga, this book is
a must for the river explorer, holiday maker or researcher.